Elizabeth Moore
School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)

Refashioning space:
The Shwedagon in British Burma (Myanmar)

The Buddhist arts of Myanmar, drawing in varied concepts of direction and boundary to sacred place, have developed a richly localized vocabulary over periods of both amalgamation and conflict. The late nineteenth century CE was one of the latter, when at the end of the Second Anglo-Burmese War British troops occupied the highly venerated Shwedagon pagoda. Nonetheless, or perhaps as a result, patronage flourished and new donations embellished religious spaces. In their contrasting worldviews and styles, the arts of this period illustrate the role of material culture in both reflecting and re-redefining the 'local' within wider processes of social change.

Elizabeth Moore is a Reader in the Art & Archaeology of South East Asia and Head of the Department of Art & Archaeology, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). Recent and in press publications include: Early landscapes of Myanmar, River Books, Bangkok (2007); 'Astrology in Burmese Buddhist culture, Decoding an illustrated manuscript from the SOAS Archives', Orientations, October 2007:38/8: 79-85; 2007; 'The Gold Coast: Suvannabhumi? Lower Myanmar Walled Sites of the First Millennium A.D.' With San Win. Asian Perspectives. (2007) January 46/1: 202-232; ‘Buddhist narratives and the ancient topography of Dawei’ Buddha and the Sacred Mountain (ed P. Gutman).Bangkok, Silkworm Press (2008); 'Place and space in early Burma: a new look at ‘Pyu Culture’' Journal of the Siam Society (2009 forthcoming).